The most recent update from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) puts the percentage of hospitals eligible having successfully attested to Stage 2 Meaningful Use at 77 percent.

In latest monthly meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee, Elisabeth Holland of the CMS Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) reported that 1814 of 2115 eligible hospitals (EHs) had attested to Stage 2 Meaningful Use during the 2014 period as of the first of the year.

In late November, the federal agency extended the 2014 meaningful reporting deadline until December 31, giving these eligible providers an additional month to complete their 2014 meaningful use attestation.

Over that one-month period, the number of EHs successfully attesting for meaningful use reporting year 2014 rose from 3696 to 4093, with the EHs successfully attesting to Stage 2 Meaningful Use increasing from 1681 to 1814.

The total number of hospital attestations is slightly less than last year’s mark of 4112 total attestations for this portion of eligible providers.

During December’s meeting, the federal agency reported that number of EHs having successfully attested to Stage 2 Meaningful Use as of December 1 doubled from 840 to 1681.

The update comes one day after a group of industry associations voiced their support of a reintroduced bill to modify 2015 meaningful use reporting requirements, the Flexibility in Health IT Reporting (Flex-IT) Act of 2015 that would require a 90-day, quarter-based reporting period rather than a full year of reporting this year.

Support for the bill was bolstered by CMS data indicating that one-third of hospitals expected to demonstrate Stage 2 Meaningful Use in 2014 had to file for a hardship exception or meet Stage 1 requirements again, yet these figures and those provided yesterday by CMS do not add up.

Speaking of bad math, there is CMS data on eligible professionals over the same timeframe that raises questions. As of January 1, a total of 76,730 EPs demonstrated meaningful use in 2014, up from 60,561 EPs as of December 1. As for Stage 2, CMS data from the Health IT Policy Committee meeting incorrectly shows a decrease in successful 2014 Stage 2 Meaningful Use attestations — 16,455 to 16,359. (CMS is currently correcting those figures which will be made available shortly.)

The meaningful use attestation deadline for these eligible providers is set for the end of February. The number of EPs attesting to Stage 2 Meaningful Use has ample time to increase.

Still carrying around that BlackBerry you've had for the last five years? Still using Microsoft 2003 on that XP machine of yours? Still think the "cloud" is a fad? You might be doing yourself and your business a disservice if you answered "yes" to one or more of those questions.

Keeping up with the ever-changing world of technology is tough. Change can be hard. It's much easier to keep the status quo and ignore all the technological advances happening around you. The problem is, if you don't adapt and keep up with technology, you'll miss out on all the advancements and benefits it has to offer.

That trusty BlackBerry took too long to embrace touch-screen technology and missed out on creating a robust app store. The result is you can't check into your American Airlines flight on your phone, you can't use Hailo to get a cab, you can't access your Google Drive documents, and you can forget about looking up restaurant reviews on Yelp. Basically, even though switching to an Android or iOS device may be inconvenient in the short-run, the long-term benefits are well worth it. You'll have to learn how to use a new tool but that took has far more uses.

Technology in the workplace can mean the difference between a successful business and a failing business. Capable hardware and efficient software will keep your office running in tip-top condition and will allow your employees to focus on their jobs instead of troubleshooting their computers.

Look into Web-based programs that can be accessed remotely and that have export features that allow you to easily extract the data you need. Productivity suites like Google Documents are free and offer a comparable experience to the costly Microsoft Office standard (Google documents are compatible with MS Word). If you have to use Microsoft Office, don't skip on more than one major update. The difference between Word 2007 and Word 2010 is probably greater than you think.

The anxiety in introducing new technology to your office staff lies in the assumption that each employee has a different adoption threshold; some will "get it" and others will struggle. That's not as big of a hurdle as it's been in the past, as technology has become more uniform. Most people have a smartphone of some design, and many have households with smart TVs, multiple computers, and other universal technologies. Like all things, it may take a day or two for your staff to become comfortable with the new work flow, but your bottom line...and talent pool...will appreciate it.

In summary, don't be afraid to try new technology. If there's a hot new device or productivity program, there's probably a reason for it being so popular. Don't turn your practice into a technological ghost-town. Think about what your competition is doing.

In regards to technology, it’s good to be a leader and it’s also good to be a follower ... just make sure you’re one of them versus neither of them.

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